Former CIA Agent Pleads Guilty to Spying for China
A former CIA agent pleaded guilty to spying for China for over a decade.
Ex-CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 72, pleaded guilty in a Honolulu federal court on Friday for providing intelligence officers in China with classified information.
A court filing from the DOJ revealed it had amassed “a war chest of damning evidence” against Ma exchanging classified information with China’s Ministry of State Security stretching back to 2001.
Among the evidence was a video of Ma exchanging classified information for thousands of dollars.
Ma also told an undercover FBI agent that he hopes the motherland succeeds.
According to NBC News, among the classified information was “CIA sources and assets, international operations, secure communication practices, and operational tradecraft.”
Ex-CIA officer accused of spying for China pleads guilty in a Honolulu courtroom:https://t.co/1UJYdp6UKq
— KHON2 News (@KHONnews) May 24, 2024
Per NBC News:
A former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI accused of spying for China for at least a decade pleaded guilty Friday in a federal courtroom in Honolulu.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, 72, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2020. The Justice Department said in a court filing it amassed “a war chest of damning evidence” against him, including an hourlong video of Ma and an older relative — also a former CIA officer — providing classified information to intelligence officers with China’s Ministry of State Security in 2001.
The video shows Ma counting the $50,000 received from the Chinese agents for his service, prosecutors said.
During a sting operation, he accepted thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for past espionage activities, and he told an undercover FBI agent posing as a Chinese intelligence officer that he wanted to see the “motherland” succeed, prosecutors said.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, Ma pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy: “to gather or deliver national defense information to a foreign government.”
Prosecutors also called for Ma to only receive a 10-year sentence, but a Judge will have the final say on September 11th during Ma’s sentencing hearing.
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